The Slow Burn
by CoralReef89
Summary: Modern AU. College was supposed to be for fresh starts, and he'd briefly hoped that at Berk—best-known school on the west coast—he'd finally be able to drop the persona of raging nerd. But that dream had been short lived.


**The Slow Burn**

The Beta Kappa Pledge Initiation Ceremony had been going considerably well until the house caught fire.

The pledges eventually came to blame it on that small, stringy boy, Hiccup, who shouldn't have even been allowed there in the first place.

Hiccup blamed it on whoever's impractical decision it had been to do the entire ceremony in the dark. Aesthetics were just never worth it in the long run.

Twelve boys were gathered in tiny basement of the Beta Kappa house when the lights cut off. The room had been plenty uninviting before—cramped and dank and smelling faintly of milk gone sour— but in the dark, it was infinitely worse. Pitch black, with no windows to let in even a glimpse of moonlight, and silent except for the _drip drip drip_ of a leaking pipe somewhere on the ceiling.

The twelve boys held their breaths.

And then, like a mirage, out of the blackness came a small, quivering speck of orange candlelight. It seemed to float in the center of the room unbound. So dim was the glow that it was only just possible to make out the silhouette of the man holding the candle's stem—a figure cloaked in thick black robes, hood drooped low over his face.

"You were wise…" began the raspy voice, "to seek passage to the Beta Kappa brotherhood."

Hiccup, who was standing as far as humanly possible from the center of the room, rolled his eyes.

"To be a Beta Kappa brother is to be _great_. You have all come here seeking greatness. But greatness is a _selective_ mistress..."

Someone snickered at that.

"Your trials are just beginning. In these next few weeks, you must prove that you are deserving of this honor. That you are great, that you are Beta Kappa blood…" He paused for dramatic effect. "Or you are _out_."

There was a rough, scratchy sound as matches were struck, and then the room filled with the glow of a half dozen more orange flames. The faint light revealed more hooded figures, faces indistinguishable in the shadows, surrounding the twelve pledges in a loose circle.

"Beta Kappa… Beta Kappa… Beta Kappa…. BETA KAPPA… BETA KAPPA!"

The chanting grew louder and louder, falling into a steady rhythm, like a drum, beating in time to the flow of adrenaline pumping through their veins.

The only one not swept up by the infectious moment was Hiccup. He joined in with slightly less enthusiasm. "Yay…" he muttered under his breath. "Yeah, Beta Kappa. Yeehaw…"

The leader of the ceremony pulled back his hood—Scott Jorgenson, the fraternity's student president. He was one of those thick, big-boned boys who you could tell played football just by the smell of him alone. His black hair was long and unkempt and a mustache was blooming on his upper lip. Scott was the sort of man who could probably sprout a thick a patch hair on any region of his body at will. Hiccup frowned at the thought; he still couldn't produce more than a few whiskers on his best days.

"Let's read off the names of our newest pledges!" he bellowed, and the chanting finally died down. "First, Tad Thorston!"

The initiates waited to be called up one by one, both eager and nervous to shake Scott's hand. Hiccup, however, was preoccupied by the smell of smoke curling around the room. Who lit candles in a basement, anyway? Had these people ever read a Fire Safety Handbook? His lungs were starting to feel a bit tight, and he cursed himself silently for leaving his inhaler in his dorm.

"Haddock!" someone shouted. "For god's sake, Haddock, get over here!"

"Oh, great, it's the _Hiccup_," someone muttered out of the side of their mouths. A few of the others chuckled. "Who let the _Hiccup_ down here?"

The Hiccup in question rolled his eyes. College was supposed to be for fresh starts, and he'd briefly hoped that at Berk—best-known school on the west coast—he'd finally be able to drop the persona of raging nerd. But that dream had been short lived. In high school, at least, he hadn't been branded with the most humiliating nickname in recent history: Hiccup.

"Ha," he deadpanned. "Hiccup. Who thought of that one? Their mom must be so proud." But no one was actually listening to him, so he sighed and shuffled over to the middle of the room.

Scott took his hand in a firm, suffocating shake. "Look who it is," he goaded. "The newest Haddock. Our very own Beta Kappa royalty."

Hiccup resisted the urge to cringe. He pulled one corner of his mouth into what he hoped was a somewhat cordial smile.

Scott released his hand, and Hiccup shoved it into the pocket of his jeans, flexing his fingers to let the blood flow back into them. "Well," he drawled awkwardly. "Happy to be here. Thanks."

He hurried back in line with the other pledges. His chest was feeling tight. He sniffed. Yep, definitely from the smoke.

"All right!" Scott called out to the group. "Take a look around the room. You are all here for the same reason. To become a Beta Kappa." He spread his arms out wide. "This is your team now. These are your friends. We're here for each other. We're brothers. That's what being a Beta Kappa means."

Even coming from Scott, it was sort of a touching speech. The boys all turned their heads from side to side, nodding and sharing hesitant smiles.

"And now," Scott cried out with formality, "for our final initiation tradition! We will share a drink from the same cup. This is a ritual passed down from our fraternity's founding brothers."

A large pint glass was produced, and bottles of various alcoholic beverages accrued like a makeshift bar on the floor in the center of the room. Scott kneeled down and began mixing the brew. All of the boys laughed and winced in disgust as the glass was filled first with a frothing mixture of three different beers, then with shots of whisky, vodka, and gin, and topped off with a few drops of lemon juice. He rose the murky concoction high. "Here's to brotherhood!"

The Beta Kappa pledges cheered.

"Woo," muttered Hiccup.

Scott took the first swing, and he gulped down so much he made the drink look almost enjoyable. But when it was passed to the next boy, he nearly dropped the glass from coughing so much. Down the glass was passed, one boy after another trying a gulp and then clearing their throats at the burning taste.

When the glass made it to Hiccup, there was only enough left for a small gulp. He shifted the cup in a slow circle to break up the film of spit accumulating at the top.

He lifted the glass to his lips, holding his nose so he wouldn't take a whiff of the bitter stench. And then he tilted it back, waiting for the liquid to trickle down to the back of his throat.

To his left, someone coughed. Then an elbow jabbed Hiccup sharply in the torso, right in between his ribs. He stumbled and caught himself, clutching at his side.

_CRASH_.

He hadn't even realized he'd dropped the glass until it exploded against the concrete floor. He flinched away from the mess, only to step hard on someone's foot.

"Get off!" The boy—Tad Thorston—raised a fist and aimed for Hiccup's nose. In an unusual feat of quick reflexes, he managed to duck out of the way in time. Instead, the blow caught a chubby boy right in the chin.

"Ow! Tad!" The boy's arms flailed and caught someone else right in the stomach.

And this man was one of the Brothers, who had been holding one of the wax candles. It fell out of his grasp and into the mess of wet glass littering the floor. In an instant, the flame caught and was set ablaze.

And that was when chaos erupted. The newly anointed Beta Kappa pledges turned from brothers to foes, pushing and shoving at each other to get to the narrow staircase leading out of the basement.

In the anarchy, the bottles of alcohol set out on the floor were kicked over, and the flames rapidly spread, bursting high enough to graze the ceiling.

Heart hammering in his chest, Hiccup made for the stairs. But the boys overpowered him, practically climbing over each other to get to the main floor. He sucked in a smoke-filled breath and pressed his back to the wall, watching the growing yellow-blue glow.

Tendrils of flame rolled about the room, washing over the floor and licking at the walls. Almost pretty, maybe, in an odd way. Almost like a dance. He could imagine being lost in the blaze, the heat consuming him…

"Haddock! Dammit!" Scott's face appeared at the base of the stairwell. He grabbed at the collar of Hiccup's shirt and tugged.

Fighting the smoky haze creeping into his brain, Hiccup let himself be dragged up the stairs and into the common room of the Beta Kappa house. Scott pointed his finger towards the door. "Get outside!"

Hiccup listened. And as he made a run for it, he fleetingly noticed the picture of his father hung over the fireplace's mantle.

* * *

><p>I hope you've enjoyed this first bit. I'd love to know!<p> 


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